Steps Toward ASI Panel Review Negotiations: #1
3ABN Live, August 10, 2006: Damage Control Time
In order to properly understand the significance of parts of Harold Lance's ASI statement, we must first
take a look at certain key steps that led to ASI's attempt to find a resolution for the current crisis at 3ABN.
And to do that, we must first go back to August 10, 2006.
On that date Danny Shelton aired a special damage control edition of 3ABN live. The reason? A
signed, confidential statement had started circulating among pastors and church leaders, a statement
written by his step-daughter, a statement alleging that Danny had sexually assaulted her.
Through the two-hour broadcast, Danny Shelton and crew repeatedly stated that lies were being told about
them and Danny, that they and Danny were being persecuted, and that they and Danny weren't going to defend
themselves.
In the first hour John Lomacang had an interesting sermon about Moses, a sermon that under normal circumstances
would have been quite good, with just a tad left out.
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"The Israelites had to acknowledge that God had chosen Moses
to lead them. I want to stop and say that, we may not always
agree with who God chooses, but when God chooses someone, disagreeing
with that one can bring on us adversity, discouragement, and
the loss of our vision."
"Moses was the instrument that God used, as Danny Shelton is
the instrument that God uses here at 3ABN. Moses was not the
deliverer. Danny's not the deliverer. He's simply the chosen
servant of God."
(John Lomacang on 3ABN Today Live, 1st hour, replayed at 3pm CDT, Sunday, August 13, 2006)
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While Danny Shelton has been much loved by many Seventh-day Adventists, the idea of it being wrong to
disagree with him, as if his position of authority were akin to the pope, just doesn't ring true.
In the second hour, amidst more claims that they weren't going to defend themselves,
Shelley Quinn had a talk about another famous person:
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"As a faithful witness for God, he spoke out against a couple
who had entered into a sinful relationship. Now the woman entangled
in this situation became offended. She was embittered, and she
felt scorned. And you know, there's something about her, that
she was unconcerned about her relationship in the eyes of the
Lord. Her worry revolved more around the possibility of losing
her prominent position. So what did she do? She devised a plan
to eliminate this one who had exposed her, and she enlisted the
help of her young daughter. Now prompted by her mother, this
daughter became entangled in the web of deceit, and she set out
to set her mother's position and save it by destroying this man
of God. What we see here is that the scheme was to go forward
and go straight for the throat and have his head served up on
a platter. Does this story sound familiar to you? To whom am
I referring? John the Baptist, of course."
"Now how could such a holy, Spirit-filled man, who was hand-picked
by God, and called to such an important ministry, fall victim
to such vile persecution? Why would God allow it?"
(Shelley Quinn on 3ABN Today Live, 2nd hour, replayed at 4pm CDT, Sunday, August 13, 2006)
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Now anyone familiar with the Bible story about how Herodias and her daughter Salome
got the head of John the Baptist knows that the Bible does not depict Salome getting
"entangled in the web of deceit." There is no description of their deceiving anyone. We
are left with the conclusion that Danny and crew were really talking about his ex-wife Linda, and Linda's
daughter's confidential testimony alleging sexual assault by Danny.
Danny Shelton not defending himself?
Shelley Quinn's Talk: a Powerful Motivator
Three days later on Sunday, August 13, far away from Thompsonville, Illinois, in northwest Minnesota, Seventh-day Adventist
researcher and apologist Bob Pickle watched a rerun of that broadcast. A retired pastor and good friend had been calling
him periodically for months and months with concerns about some of the events transpiring at 3ABN, and he had
asked a few questions of a few folks. During the previous month or so he had spent a little time here and there
perusing BlackSDA.com, and
trying to sort through all the he said, she said stuff, looking for concrete facts that could be proven
or disproven.
Danny's strategy has been to deflect every allegation of any sort with the claim that it all is because
his ex-wife Linda is out to get him. Yet even if that is so, and even if Linda's daughter's allegation
of sexual assault by Danny is all a lie, to call it a lie in a globally televised TV broadcast while at
the same time claiming not to defend one's self, that crossed a line in Pickle's mind. Right then and there
during Shelley Quinn's talk, he decided to not just stand on the sidelines and ask a few questions, but to wade into
the morass and find out the truth of it all, regardless of the consequences.
That decision was followed the next day by the discovery of the
2003 Glenn Dryden letter.
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